The Holidays are Upon Us

Here we are Church, right in the midst of the Christmas season. Let me encourage you to not fall into a pattern of laziness or apathy. This is a prime time for us to step up as Believers and love those around us! Practice random acts of kindness in public or at the workplace, pay it forward in line at the drive through, get outside of the house and serve others this holiday season. It's not about the gifts, or the lights, or the treats - it's about Emmanuel: Christ with us! It's about the whole world anxiously awaiting the coming King for 700+ years, and then celebrating his arrival; as a baby…in a manger (which is a very important fact).

Sure, he could have come to Earth in a beam of bright light, a blast of glory shooting down from the heavens. That would have been pretty wild! That certainly would have confirmed his divinity, but not his humanity. We would have a hard time believing that Jesus was actually human if he came down from heaven like that. To be human, he needed to be born as a human.

God could have had Jesus born from the relations of both a man and a woman, just like you and me. The problem with this, though, is that it would allow for his humanity, but not his deity. Jesus would have had to become deity at some point early in his life. But it would deny his full deity if his divine nature began at a specific point in time.

So he came as a baby - fully human and fully deity, in the person of Jesus Christ. And we celebrate that this season! We reflect on his first coming, we relate to Israel longing for their coming King through the observance of Advent, and we long for the Second Coming of Christ in an Advent of our own. We have the opportunity to spread real love and joy this holiday season. Will you strive to do that, or will you circle the wagons and shut down for the holidays? He gives us the choice, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord this Christmas.

Pastor Robbie Earle